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Caroline Kennedy has publicly denied to CNN the persistent — though oft-rebutted — rumor that she had been tapped as U.S. ambassador the Vatican and that the Holy See had rejected her for being pro-choice.

For good measure, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., has told USA Today (scroll down to “in other comments”) that he never put Kennedy’s name forward for the post, a popular variation of the blogosphere’s bad reporting on the topic.

Catholic News Service (here and here), The Associated Press and other mainstream news organizations weeks ago shot down the Kennedy rumor, as well as the equally ubiquitous fable that the Vatican had rejected three Obama nominees.

To date, Obama has only announced nominees for ambassadors to Iraq, Afghanistan and Ireland. It would be logical that nominations for slots such as Paris, the Court of St. James in London and Moscow will be higher priorities than an ambassador to Vatican City.